The Catholic Church needs to examine why some of the larger states around the nation are choosing to legalize civil unions of gay couples, but don’t expect any approval of these unions any time soon, says Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York.

Pope Francis “didn't come right out and say he was for them,” Dolan said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” What the pope said, he explained, is that church leaders need to “look into it and see the reasons that have driven them… Rather than quickly condemn them… let's just ask the questions as to why that has appealed to certain people."

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Marriage is between one man and one woman and is “not something that's just a religious, sacramental concern…it's also the building block of society and culture,” Dolan said.

“So it belongs to culture. And if we water down that sacred meaning of marriage in any way, I worry that not only the church would suffer, I worry that culture and society would,” he continued.

Dolan slammed Rush Limbaugh for referring to Pope Francis as a Marxist, calling it “terrible hyperbole.”

The Church is “always concerned about excesses on the left, which is collectivism, socialism, communism, and excesses on the right, which is unfettered, cut-throat capitalism,” Dolan said. “Somewhere in between is the via media, which will come to a fair, equitable, just, economic system.”

Having lived under a Communist regime in Poland, Pope John Paul II “was a bit more sensitive to the excesses on the left. Francis, he's a bit more sensitive about the excesses to the right,” Dolan said, explaining Pope Francis’ views. He pointed out that as Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Pope Francis lived under right-wing regimes in Argentina for much of his life.

The Catholic Church needs to examine why some of the larger states around the nation are choosing to legalize civil unions of gay couples, but don't expect any approval of these unions any time soon, says Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York.
Pope Francis "didn't come right...